Just looking at the make-up of our list management as it stands at present;
Last season: 44 players (including Rance)
Now: 41 players (including Houli & Colina)
Players who have left since last season (excluding Rance):
Markov (half back flanker)
Eggmolese-Smith (half back flanker)
Higgins (forward/midfielder)
English (midfielder)
Turner (winger)
Players who have arrived since last season:
Ryan (ruckman)
Rioli (small forward)
Imo, it is interesting that the players that the club have brought in are not like for like with the players who have left and there seems to be a significant change in the make-up of our list since last season and obviously a significant reduction in the number of players on the list. I am not sure what sense to make of it really. According to the RFC recruiting manager in an interview since the draft, the club has the option of drafting another player in the supplementary period over the next 2-3 months, like the club did with Sydney Stack.
Essentially from a net position we have lost 2 half back flankers, a midfielder, a player who wanted to be primarily a midfielder (Higgins) and a winger and gained a ruckman and a small forward. With the loss of those 5 players and being 3 players short of our maximum list size, our VFL team will surely be weakened for next season. To add to the issue, it appears that Soldo will be out of action for most or all of next season and Cumberland will be out of action for probably at least half of next season, so at the start of next season we may have only 39 available players.
The club may be going into next season 2 or 3 players short of our maximum number because Houli is yet to be contracted and we have 23 players (including Bolton) who will be out of contract at the end of next season. I suggest that to have more than half your list out of contract at the one time is a very big thing, particularly with a reduced TPP salary cap imposed by the AFL going forward. I thought that the club did very well in signing up several players at the end of last season, including Nankervis, Broad, RCD but in doing so, it may well have left the club with salary cap problems going forward. Imo, it is conceivable that Eggmolese-Smith and/or Turner and/or English may essentially be victims of salary cap pressures and to enable the club to have a salary cap "buffer" to try to retain most or all of the 23 players who are out of contract at the end of next season.
To my knowledge, it is not clear at this time as to whether Nate Colina will be at the club for the start of next season. If he is there, the club could have 7 players who could play in the ruck at least part time at some time during next season, being Nankervis, Soldo, Coleman-Jones, Chol, Colina, Nyuon and Miller. We could have a somewhat top heavy VFL side if the club decides to use Nankervis as the sole ruckman in the AFL games.
For me, as it stands at present, I am certainly not clear as to what the club is doing with its list management decisions.